Sunday, May 13, 2012

Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph, Theodoros Pangalos said he was "very much afraid of what is going to happen" after Greek voters rejected the deal in elections last Sunday.

"The majority of the people voted for a very strange mental construction," he said. "We want to be in the EU and the euro, but we don't want to pay anything for the past."[MORE]

Merkel's party routed in big German state

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday in an election in Germany's most populous state, a result which could embolden the left opposition to step up its criticism of her European austerity policies.

The election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a western German state with a bigger population than the Netherlands and an economy the size of Turkey, was held 18 months before a national election in which Merkel is expected to fight for a third term.[MORE]

Student in fight for her life battling flesh-eating bacteria

Flesh-eating bacteria -- a rare, aggressive infection that violently attacks the deepest layers of skin -- has claimed a Georgia student's leg, hands and remaining foot, thrusting her into the fight of her life and stirring nationwide interest about her ordeal.

Aimee Copeland, 24, was kayaking near the Little Tallapoosa River in Georgia on May 1 when she hopped on a homemade zip-line for a ride. The line snapped, Copeland fell, and she suffered a cut to her calf.[MORE]

Shortfall in California’s Budget Swells to $16 Billion

The state budget shortfall in California has increased dramatically in the last six months, forcing state officials to assemble a series of new spending cuts that are likely to mean further reductions to schools, health care and other social programs already battered by nearly five years of budget retrenchment, state officials announced on Saturday.

Gov. Jerry Brown, disclosing the development in a video posted on YouTube, said that California’s shortfall was now projected to be $16 billion, up from $9.2 billion in January. Mr. Brown said that he would propose a revised budget on Monday to deal with it.[MORE]

UN moves to compensate the victims of terrorism

People seriously injured or maimed by terrorist attacks across the world would be granted automatic legal rights to compensation and rehabilitation under far-reaching changes to rebalance international law in favour of victims, a UN report will recommend next month.

The report, drawn up by the UN's special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, a leading British lawyer, will be welcomed by the UK government at a time when the international legal system faces criticism for doing too much to protect the rights of alleged supporters of terrorism, such as the radical cleric Abu Qatada.[MORE]

He's been jetting around the globe promoting his new film Dark Shadows, but director Tim Burton was brought back down to earth with a thud today at a promotional event in Tokyo, Japan.

The 53-year-old, who had just arrived at a news conference with the film's star Johnny Depp, fell off the stage in front of a big crowd and had to be held up by a fast acting handler.[MORE]

Forty-nine headless corpses found in northern Mexico

Suspected drug gang killers dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near Mexico's northern city of Monterrey in one of the country's worst atrocities in recent years.

The mutilated corpses of 43 men and 6 women, whose hands and feet had also been cut off, were found in a pile on a highway in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez in the early hours of Sunday, officials from the state of Nuevo Leon said.[MORE]